Sunday, November 28, 2010

Mark Richt just finished a fairly newsy Sunday teleconference with reporters. The top headlines:

- He laughed off speculation about the vacant job at Miami, his alma mater, and said he “absolutely” expects to be Georgia’s head coach next fall.

- No staff changes are being considered now, and Mike Bobo will remain the play caller on offense.

- The staff is hitting the recruiting trail looking for a few immediate impact players, including some junior college prospects. And they would love to get a big, physical nose guard.

Let’s start with the Miami job, which opened up Saturday. The first question to Richt was whether it could be a distraction.

“I don’t think it’ll be a distraction because I have the same answer for that as I had for the other one,” he said. “Georgia’s my home and it’s where I wanna finish my career.”

He was alluding to the Colorado job, which he was linked to a couple weeks ago. As for Miami, Richt said he has not been approached.

“It’s like I’ve been saying: Georgia’s my home and that’s where I want to be,” Richt said. “I don’t think I’ve gotta go any farther than that.”

But could there be changes on his staff? Not immediately, it seems. The head coach spoke of evaluating the program and its problems, and how they can be fixed: Recruiting, strength and conditioning, even nutrition were the topics he mentioned.

Then when Richt was asked if he was considering any staff changes, he paused a moment.

“Am I considering changes on the staff? No,” he said.

Later, when asked about the criticism offensive coordinator Mike Bobo dealt with this season, Richt defended his coordinator. He pointed to the record number of consecutive games that the team has scored at least 30 points – the streak currently stands at seven, the most in school history. Richt also pointed to his own days at Florida State, saying he incurred grief from fans.

“If you’re in that leadership position, if you’re (calling plays)… you’re always gonna be a guy that’s gonna be open for the criticism,” Richt said. “It just comes with the territory.”

So does that mean he wants Bobo as the play-caller going forward?

“Yes,” Richt answered.

While the season still isn’t over, as Richt pointed out, he did say the team was working on improving next year’s talent level. That means a few junior college prospects.

“We’re working some guys. And when we do go junior college we try to find some guys that can impact immediately,” Richt said.

Asked to assess the team’s top two or three priorities in recruiting, the head coach at first demurred, saying they needed to look “across the board,” because of future depth needs. But he eventually mentioned a “big, physical nose guard” to fit the 3-4 scheme. Junior DeAngelo Tyson, a smaller tackle better suited for a 4-3, started each game at nose this year.

23 comments:

Agreed Willb.. Actually, I would settle for Richt simply saying he would be more involved with a little in-game playcalling or something like imparting more on play calling philosophy. What bothers me is that Richt doesn't agree that there is a problem. If he would acknowledge that there have been some issues with playcalling that would be addressed, that would go a long way.

Strength and conditioning are the keys along with a younger more energetic black recruiter. We look weak on both lines of scrimmage......have for the last few years. Van Harlanger is behind the times.

By the way has anyone else noticed how high in the 3 point stance Tyson sets up? He seems to lose leverage along with no weight to offset strength. Though he made a lot of tackles many were downfield as he was being dragged.Seth, can you aske him about that high setup?AlaDawg

Bobo should stay. The offensive output speaks for itself and the offense isn't the only or the main reason we lost the games we lost (the games we lost were by a combined 55 points, while the games we've won were by a combined 187 points).

I'll admit, there have been some times where we could be more aggressive but I think Bobo learns from this season and moves forward. With a solid offense, and hopefully a more-solid defense, next year will be fun to watch between the hedges. Go Dawgs!

Even if he is going to make changes he's not going to come out and publicly say he is. Especially since they have a bowl game left to prepare for and are all hitting the recruiting trail. That wouldn't be very smart.

I know that everyone complains when we "go conservative". And I would have personally called a playaction on that 2nd down.

But it's a little retarded that we "go conservative" when we run the ball and get stopped. But nobody complains about a running play that gets 6-12 yards.

And in 100% honesty. You are not going to beat an Auburn in the air. Their offense is too good. They will find weaknesses and "get better" offensively as the game goes on. GT isn't as good as Auburn. But their gameplan is EXACTLY the same. Find out what we're adjusting to and make those moves beat ourselves.

We have to be able to run the ball to win. If we "f" up and get stopped, it's as much on execution as it is playcalling. I hate Sunday morning OC's out there complaining about "going conservative" when last season they were all up in arms about abandoning the run.

We're scoring more points per game this season EVER under CMR. And that's with a RsFr QB who hasn't shown the ability to take over a game on pure talent alone.

Next years offense will look errily similar to the first 4 games of the year, except with no kris duram and a lot less experience on the OL. How many pts did we score in the 3 sec games with no AJ? 14pts per game. Plus losing Houston will hurt. If we can't run the ball, we will never be consistent on Offense and will cause our D to be on the field for an excessive amount of time. We run playaction pass like we average 150+ yds rushing per game. With the lack of running attack we have all the playaction passing is wasted motion in the back field.

Anon 11:42 I believe that we were being cautious with Murray early in the year, red shirt freshman quarterback in his first SEC action. We now have a much more experienced qb and even though he is young we will not be nearly as conservative at the beginning of next year as we were at the beginning of this year.

I think the drawback with staff changes now is all based on recruiting. Breaking those ties now would give these kids another reason not to sign. Keeping the staff together at this point is really Coach Richt's only option regardless of how we see it.

My concerns this year have been with our play in the trenches on both sides of the ball. The lack of dominance on the offensive side given the experience returning to me is a major concern. It shouldn't take five games to find your groove - regardless if AJ is out or not. For whatever reason we have struggled in OL play every year with excuses from youth,injuries, rotation etc...something is a miss here and needs addressed. We just have problems running the ball consistency throughout the season. On D I believe its just a matter of not having the right personnel and quality depth. I don't know if that really can be fixed in just one year. We shall see.. What I do know is that if play is this subpar in the trenches next year we will have a new headcoach come 2012..

Richt is clueless and has been for years now. Sorry but it is a fact. He ALWAYS has excuses. he brags about scoring 30 points in a bunch of games versus pathetic teams...news flash coach, EVERYONE scores 30 points nowadays. You should scored 50. Just delaying the inevitable one year. The guy just isn't comitted to coaching football, that program has fallen so far it is ridiculous.

I love how these people bring up meaningless stats. Its not about how many points you average in games its about WINS. And its about when you score and how much you score in the key games, not that you scored 50 on LL or 40 on GT. Everybody scores 40 points now in college football. But yes it is about the defensive side of the ball and no physical play AT ALL.

To the people who want Richt gone, who do you want to replace him? If Smart, Muschamp or anyone else in their position is hired, that puts us in the same position as when Richt was hired. We would be giving another coordinator a chance to make something of himself. I don't think there is a Saban or Meyer available right now. I for one want Richt to stay and am happy to have him back next year. If something doesn't happen in 1-2 years, I may jump on the fire Richt bandwagon.

Todd, not sure if you check on here....but if so. Here's the facts. We are 6-6 and did not beat a ranked team or a team with a winning record. We have a LOSING record in the SEC the last three years. It is because of defense, it is because of offense it is because of coaching. This program has slid for 5 years. Bobo is NOT an elite coach, if he was, someone would have come and hired him by now. Look at UF, BOTH their coordinators were excellent and they were hired as HCs and after they left, Florida has suffered greatly. We canned one of our coordinators, that's how good he was and the other is a good coach but has not shown enough after 5 years and many losses to stay in that position. This isn't just about one year and it's not just about play calling, it is about the entire game plan and the direction of the offense. I like Richt and want him to succeed but he is blind to the issues in the program (discipline, staff, recruiting, S&C, tackling). He made the changes on defense that need to be made (albeit one year too late) but another 4-6 loss season, all our debate will be over.

And Todd if you need me to post facts about how many teams are scoring 30+ points in games (and not only against Vandy, TN, Idaho State, LL, UF, GT and yes Aub--everyone scores 30 on these teams) then you aren't watching college football, you are just a UGA homer that has no perspective outside of Sanford Stadium.

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About the Author

Seth Emerson has been covering the SEC and Georgia (on and off) since 2002. He worked at the Albany Herald from 2002-05, then spent five years at The State in Columbia, S.C., covering South Carolina. He returned to Athens in August of 2010, only to find that David Pollack and David Greene were no longer playing for the Bulldogs. Adjustments were made.

Emerson is originally from Silver Spring, Md., and graduated from Maryland in 1998 with a degree in journalism and a minor in getting lost on the way to practically everywhere. Then he spent four years at The Washington Post, covering small colleges, a couple NCAA basketball tournaments, and on one glorious day, was yelled at by Tony Kornheiser. It was probably at The Post that he also learned to write in the third person.

These days he lives in Athens with his beloved and somewhat wimpy dog, Archie. Together they fight crime at night in northeast Georgia, except on nights there is no crime, in which case they sit at home, sip on white wine and watch reruns of "Mad Men."